Old Navy defends 'discriminatory' plus-size pricing

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Old Navy has angered some of its customers by charging more for plus-size women's clothes while prices for plus-size men's clothes remain the same.

A New York woman recently launched an online campaign asking the retailer to change its practice, and now the retailer has issued a statement trying to explain the price difference.

In the statement, Old Navy says its styles and apparel are “designed specifically for our plus-size female customers, which includes curve-enhancing and curve-flattering elements... This higher price point reflects this selection of unique fabrics and design elements.”

In the Change.org petition, Renee Posey says she discovered the price difference when she was shopping for a pair of jeans on Old Navy’s website.

“I was fine paying the extra money as a plus-sized woman, because, you know, more fabric equals higher cost of manufacture,” Posey writes.

“However, selling jeans to larger-sized men at the same cost as they sell to smaller men not only negates the cost of manufacture argument, but indicates that Old Navy is participating in both sexism and sizeism, directed only at women.”

Posey’s campaign also calls out the retailer for putting its plus-sized selection in a separate category while the men’s “big” clothes are grouped with the “regular” sizes.